Improvement in stuffing and currying leather



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS MCDONALD, OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN STUFFING AND CURRYING LEATHER.

Specification forming part .of Letters Patent No. 57,165, dated August 14, 1866.

i To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS MCDONALD, of Roxbury, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have made a new and useful invention having reference to the Currying of Leather; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described as follows:

My invention is more properly a new composition or stuffing to be used in currying leather; and for the reception of the composition I first buff and color the leather rather than first apply the stufling to it, and afterward bud and color it as by the ordinary process of carrying.

The principle of my invention consists in the employment of a solution of caoutchouc with the oleaginous or fatty matter used in stuffing the leather, and I combine with the solution of caoutchouc aqua-ntity of bees-wax or resin, or some of both.

In making the stuffing I take three ounces of india-rubber or caoutchouc, one ounce of resin, one-quarter of an ounce of beeswax, ten pounds of oil, (fish-oil or neats-foot oil, for instance,) and eleven pounds of tallow. The whole is to be melted and stirred together. The eaoutchouc solution may be made by dissolving caoutehoue in benzine or other proper solvent.

I do not confine the composition to the precise proportions of the ingredients as above specified, as they .may be varied somewhat, as circumstances may require, to suitthe different qualities and kinds of leather to which the stuffing may be applicable.

I employ the caoutchouc with the oil and tallow for rendering the leather more resistive of water, as well as more pliable and tough. I make use of the bees-wax and resin for their drying qualities and for imparting solidity to the leather.

By my process of treating the buff-leather that is, bybuffin g with a slicker and coloring it before the application of stuffing to itI am enabled to effect the operations of bufifin g and coloring to much better advantage than I can with the stuffin g in the leather, for preparatory to the operations the leather is in a damp state and favorable for being worked; but if the stufiin g be put into it before it is bufl'ed with the slicker and colored, these last operations are couse quently impeded by the stuffing. There is a gain of from twenty-five to fifty per cent, if not more, by my process-that is, in the amount of leather which can be bufi'ed and colored by a given expenditure of labor.

The drying of the leather renders the buffing operation with the slicker more difficult. The stuffing of the leather operates to prevent it from taking the color. Therefore, by applying the stuffing last, or after the bufiing and coloring of the leather, it will be seen that there is a material saving in the process.

I claim-- 1. The employment of caoutchouc, or a solution thereof, substantially as described, with the oil and tallow or fatty matters used in currying leather.

2. The employment of bees-wax and resin, or either, and a solution of eaoutchouc, with the oil and tallow or fatty matters and in stuffing leather, they being combined as set forth.

3. Bufiing the leather with a slicker while such leather is damp, and subsequently coloring such leather and applying the stuffing to it, as specified, (not meaning to claim the application of the stuffing to the leather,) and subsequently carrying on the operations of stuffing and coloring, as set forth.

THOMAS MCDONALD.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

